Big Three expected to play against Rockets

HOUSTON — As SpursNation blogger extraordinare Dan McCarney noted earlier today, by virtue of having the best record in the NBA already on lockdown, the Spurs are an enviable position heading into the final two games of the regular season.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich can opt to rest players who need to rest and play people who need to play.

After shootaround this morning in Houston, where the Spurs face a Rockets team still clawing for home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs, Popovich indicated no plans for a mass shutdown of his regulars.

“I want to keep everybody healthy and I want to keep everybody sharp,” Popovich said. “That means you can’t just sit people and expect them to roll out the first playoff game and be sharp and ready to go. People have to play.”

Barring a last-minute change of heart — possibly while watching film of the 2011 season-ender in Phoenix in which Ginobili fractured an elbow — Popovich expects to play Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili at least some against the Rockets tonight. The Big Three might also make a cameo in Wednesday regular-season finale against the L.A. Lakers at the AT&T Center.

“You can’t just sit for a week and then wait for Sunday and expect to be ready,” Ginobili said. “Most of us are going to play. I guess some of the guys who didn’t miss as many games are going to sit for one of the two games.”

Ginobili and Duncan skipped Friday’s victory over Phoenix, which clinched the Western Conference’s top seed and home-court edge throughout the playoffs. Parker has totaled less than 34 minutes in the past week, missing two games with a back sprain.

“For sure, we want to play,” Ginobili said. “It’s always better to practice against a great team instead of just between us. It’s awkward that we’re not playing for basically anything and the Rockets are. Most other teams are. We earned that, and hopefully we use it wisely.”